A group of University of Central Florida graduate medical residents will be on hand in Washington D.C. for the presidential inauguration on Friday.
- Team of medical residents from Osceola County will work presidential inauguration
- Team is part of partnership between UCF, Osceola Regional Medical Center
- They will be on hand for emergencies with attendees, protesters
- IN-DEPTH: Inauguration of Donald J. Trump
“I was pretty excited to take part in the presidential inauguration," said Amanda Webb. "I think it’s a very rare opportunity.”
The students are part of Osceola Regional Medical Center's partnership program with UCF.
During the inauguration, they will administer first aid and medical assistance to anyone who might be hurt while attending the event, acting as first responders.
Adam Benzing is another emergency medicine resident making the trip. He used to work with the disaster team in D.C., and it was this connection that helped the Osceola team get selected.
“So we will be working all day long, until the first people come out and until the last people leave, so it will be a long day," Benzing said. "It’ll be much colder up in D.C. than it is here, so which is also part of the reason why they’re going to need medical assistance. Because it’ll be people outside standing for long periods of time and they may not have their medication in the cold weather, and so we need to anticipate that there will be some need for medical help.”
And while President-elect Donald Trump has his own medical team, these residents say they’re ready to tackle anything.
“We’re expecting about one million visitors to this inauguration and we’re expecting protesters there as well,” said emergency medicine resident Amninder Singh. “And likely there will be medical need and we will be there to provide any emergency medical services.”
This team will run a treatment and triage in the area alongside the D.C. Disaster Response Team and emergency medicine residents from George Washington University.